Marsh, the world’s leading insurance broker and risk adviser, has appointed Paul O’Keefe as Global Claims Leader for its Global Energy Practice. In this newly created role, Mr O’Keefe will co-ordinate all energy claims globally, while retaining his current position of managing the Energy Practice’s Risk Engineering, Consequential Loss and Client Consulting Services. He will continue to be based in London.

Mr O’Keefe will work directly with energy claims teams in Marsh’s nine Global Energy Practice hubs based in Calgary, Dubai, Houston, London, Madrid, New York, Oslo, San Francisco and Singapore, and a wider network of local offices, ensuring that claims are handled to the advantage of clients and professional liability exposures are minimised.

Mr O’Keefe has more than 25 years’ experience in the insurance and energy industries and has been employed by Marsh since 2007. Before joining Marsh he was an Executive Director at leading energy loss adjusters Steege Kingston, where he focussed on onshore and offshore energy insurance claims management.

Commenting on the announcement, Andrew George, Leader of Marsh’s Energy Practice in Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: “Last year, losses in the energy sector totalled approximately $11bn globally as a result of a particularly damaging Gulf of Mexico hurricane season and some significant man-made incidents.

“When faced with such a potentially high loss incidence and the current illiquidity in financial markets, superior claims performance is vital for our clients. Under Paul’s guidance, Marsh’s energy clients globally can be assured of a market leading resolution to their claims which will enable them to continue doing what they do best.”

Mr O’Keefe added: “The main goal of the Global Energy Practice’s claims team is to ensure that clients get back to ‘business as usual’ as quickly as possible after a loss. Due to the size and complex nature of energy claims and the associated insurance placements, clients require specialist claims handlers to ensure that their claims are dealt with in an expeditious manner.”